Sadie Brynn

Here are some pics of our new family member! Sadie Brynn was born at 10:35 PM on Oct 9. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and is 20 1/4 inches long.

Larkin and Willa were both born in the hospital, but for this pregnancy we decided to go with a midwife at a birth center. It was a wonderful experience!  My water broke at home, Grandma came over to take the girls to her house, and then we waited for my labor to kick in. Eventually it finally started (took a while, and was slow to get going--I kept hearing people tell me that the third baby is a "wild card" and don't expect it to be like your others--which turned out to be true!) and once the contractions were strong enough we headed to the birth center. An hour later, Sadie was born!

The birth center keeps the room warm and the lights very dim when the baby is born, and the baby doesn't get whisked away to get weighed, measured, washed, etc. They just sponge her off and keep her there with you, which was nice. Sadie cried a little bit right when she was born but then she just looked around with her big blue eyes and took everything in. We all fell asleep together and then by 6am were headed home. We called Grandma and had her bring the girls home, and they were so excited. Joel and I were sleeping with Sadie in our room, and the girls ran in to wake us up. Willa squealed when she saw her and Sadie started making some little newborn sounds. Willa ran back outside and yelled, "Larkin! I saw the baby!!! And she said Eeekk Eeekk Eeekk!"

Overall Sadie is the easiest baby yet out of all three of them. She is a great sleeper (so far) and hardly ever cries. When she does cry, she is easily consoled. She likes to listen to the girls talk to her and just stares at them mesmerized. Willa made up the cutest little song for her about "the world" and sings it to her often. I'm hoping to get it recorded and put it on the blog. Larkin would hold Sadie all day long if I let her. The other day she skipped her favorite cartoon and refused her favorite snack because she wanted to hold Sadie instead. So they snuggled together on the couch for over an hour! 

 

Sadie at the birth center

holding Sadie for the first time

Willa's first words about Sadie: "She is so cute! When will she be five?"

Cat-Mama has been a big help!Thanks Cat-Mama!!

The girls love to watch her every move!

Snuggle sisters

First shampoo

The pink lovey is in a lot of pictures--the girls are constantly "giving" it to her to snuggle with.

family of five

Larkin is five!

 Auntie Lisa came down to visit for Larkin's fifth birthday. Unfortunately Larkin came down with a stomach bug the night before her big day, but she pulled it together long enough to open presents! Luckily we had just planned a small family party.

 The girls decorated the cake with Lisa. Lots of sprinkles and decorations on the Ariel cake! Larkin picked out the Ariel candle and was very excited about it!

 

Willa was such a trooper and did not get jealous at Larkin's gifts or candles. I love how happy she looks in this pic as Larkin gets ready to blow out her candles!

 Here's the 5 pinata that we still have not broken! The plan was to have some neighborhood friends over and do the pinata with them for her birthday, but with the stomach bug and busy weekends with baby prep we never got around to it. Hopefully this weekend we'll do it!

end of summer

The girls reading to their doll in the bassinet

The new baby should be here any day now, and the girls can not wait!  Willa keeps asking when the baby will "hatch out" and they are constantly trying to come up with possible names. Some recent ones they've thought of are: Cotton, Violet, Rose, Heart Rainbow, and Flower. When I mention any possible names they are often quick to come up with reasons why that would be a terrible name. One day Willa got a bit exasperated and said, "Mom, I'm tired of all of this (coming up with names). Let's just name her Pink Flower, OK?!"

I'm happy to say though that we've found a name that all four of us agree on, although the girls do not really know which name we've picked...but when the name was mentioned a few times as a possibility it was one of the few that they both liked. :) Hopefully the announcement will come soon!



The heat wave has finally broken, but here's some pics from a few weeks ago when we were outside trying to stay cool!

Mud fight!

Playing beauty shop outside--washing hair, and watering the grass too!

Circus

 Papa took all of us to the circus a few weeks ago! He has always been a circus lover and we have a great picture of me when I was around the girls' age at a circus. The expression on my face in the picture is a combination of fear, excitement, and nervousness as I was watching the tightrope walkers. We were all laughing because the girls had the same expression on their faces. I tried to capture it but this is easier said than done when you're eight months pregnant and trying to lean over a bowling ball belly!

 Larkin loved the "trapeze girls". She's been saying for about a year now that she wants to be an acrobat someday, so they were right up her alley!

 Willa loved the cotton candy, popcorn, and the "mermaid girl" that was part of the show. She got all excited anytime she spotted the mermaid!

 Joel's favorite part was when they drove motorcycles into this metal sphere. First they start off with two motorcycles and you think, "Ok, that is crazy! Someone is going to crash!" and then next thing you know they start adding more and more motorcyclists--I think there were about 10 total all whizzing around there at once!

If someone else had been holding the camera, they could have gotten a picture of me with the same expression on my face from when I was three. We were sitting there and suddenly heard a motorcycle revving, and then directly over our heads (and I do mean directly!!) was a man and a woman riding a motorcycle over the crowd--their bike was balanced on a tightrope. The motorcycle was attached to the tightrope, but it was a bit scary because I swear if one of them fell off, it would have been right in our laps!

Thanks Papa for a memorable day!!

Larkin's first day of Pre-K

 I started Larkin in a pre-k program three days a week this year. She is loving every minute of it! Here's a pic of her on the first day. I let her bring her "Lucy" lovey for the first few days since I knew there would be tears at drop-off (and there were!). But after the third day Lucy wasn't needed anymore and and Larkin was tear-free. Now when we go she can't get there fast enough and stresses out if she thinks we're running late--she doesn't want to miss anything. She's made a few friends and loves chasing boys on the playground!

 Her teacher teaches the class table manners and students have to bring two cloth napkins to school each day (one to use as a napkin, and one as a placemat). I had Larkin pick out some fabric and sew her own napkins. She chose some fabric that she says "looks like peacock feathers" and was very excited to use the sewing machine.  She was able to push the foot pedal and guide the fabric through the machine all by herself!

 Willa helped make a napkin too!

As soon as she got home from school on the first day, she talked non-stop about everything they did and then rearranged the playroom to have centers like her classroom. Here's a pic of Larkin reading to Willa in the "library center".

Willa is enjoying her time alone with me (at least for now!). Here she is in Costco pushing her baby in a stroller while Larkin is at school. I never noticed how much Willa loves to talk to strangers until this day--she didn't have Larkin there to talk to so she went up to over 15 people (I am not exaggerating here) and told them all about her baby doll, her new sister that is coming, the pumpkin bread she just sampled, etc. Just like her dad--she can talk to anyone about anything!

hog wild

Joel joined a hunting lease this year and the girls were so excited when they heard that he had shot a hog the night before. He asked them if they wanted to come to the ranch with him to "take care of the hog" (I will omit the details here) and they immediately ran to get dressed. I skipped out on my prenatal yoga class, Joel skipped out on work, and we all drove to the "Daddy's big ranch" to find the dead hog. Classy!

In the past Joel has told the girls that they can come hunting with him whenever they want to, but Larkin said she won't go until she gets a "hunting dress" and that she only wants to shoot things with her pop gun, not a real gun. Willa gets very bossy (no surprise there) about what Joel can and cannot shoot and always tells him before he leaves--"Daddy, do NOT shoot a baby deer or a mommy deer, just a big buck! You can shoot a hog though!"

When we arrived at the ranch we spotted two bunnies and both girls had fun walking around "hunting" with their pop guns. The were not grossed out or upset by the hog at all, and I'd be willing to bet that they will become hunting partners with Joel someday. Well, if we can find some hunting dresses!

Must teach Larkin to shoot with her eyes open!

Hamilton Pool

A few weekends ago we took the girls to Hamilton Pool. It's a natural pool that is inside of a collapsed grotto, so most of it is very shaded. So shaded in fact that the girls said they were "cold"--and it was 100 degrees outside!!
Their favorite part was climbing on all the boulders--they would have done this all day long if we had let them!